Editorial: Polk schools deserve applause, apology for improvements

By The Editorial Board

Sunday

Jul 8, 2018 at 12:01 AMJul 8, 2018 at 8:02 AM

School is out for summer, but recent news gives us a reason to be proud of our students and their educators.

Last month the Polk County School Board and Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd learned the school district had shaken off a seven-year run of middling grades to boast a slight uptick. As The Ledger reported, the district recorded an overall B for 2018, the first such gain after seven consecutive years of Cs.

The results for the county's 123 graded schools indicated improvement across several categories. Consider some examples, as detailed by The Ledger.

• Polk County had no F schools, compared to three last year. The county also saw the number of D schools drop from 17 to 7.

• 30 schools posted better grades this year, relative to 2017. Two of them — Mulberry Senior High School and Fred G. Garner Elementary — picked up two grade levels. (From D to B and from F to C, respectively; Garner had received two consecutive Fs.) Yet just 15 schools declined a letter grade, with one falling by two letter grades, from an A to a C. The remaining 78 schools maintained their previous year's grades.

• Four of the district's designated "turnaround" schools — those considered failing and thus at risk for radical intervention from the state — did in fact turn around. Bartow Middle, Garner Elementary, Kathleen Middle and Lake Alfred Polytech Academy all earned C grades. A pair of others — Griffin Elementary and Lake Marion Creek Middle — failed to demonstrate adequate improvement, and for next school year will be managed by Educational Directions, a Kentucky-based contractor hired to boost their grades within two years.

• 45 schools showed sustained improvement, as their 2018 grades were higher than that received in 2016. Only eight schools had lost ground over the past two years.

As with anything in life, room for improvement always exists. We believe many Polk schools can get better, and will continue to strive upward in 2019.

Still, the 2018 showing is worthy of applause. It shows how hard the Byrd and her staff, both at headquarters and within the schools, have worked. We share the assessment of School Board member Lynn Wilson, who told The Ledger, "I’m incredibly proud of Superintendent Byrd, the staff, the principals and teachers. It’s a step in the right direction — moving forward." And let's not forget the students.

Yet then a cloud appeared over this otherwise sunny horizon.

A handful of Republican state lawmakers and a group representing conservative school board members from around the state suggested testing data for some middle-schoolers in Polk and two other counties — Duval and Manatee — smelled fishy. Specifically, they questioned whether those counties rigged the testing population on social studies year-end exams in order to boost school grades.

For instance, The Ledger noted that in 2017 in Polk County some 7,358 middle-schoolers took the state-mandated civics exam. Last year, fewer than half — 3,649 — did so. Simultaneously, scores leapt upward, with the pass rate rising from 61 percent to 82 percent. At four of the "turnaround" middle schools — Bartow Middle, Kathleen Middle, Lake Alfred Polytech Academy and Lake Marion Creek Middle — the number of test-takers plunged by 68 percent, yet the passing rate spiked from 48 percent to 72 percent.

Byrd denied any hanky-panky. She called the allegations "absolutely unfounded, unwarranted and unnecessarily damaging."

She explained that the district, after consulting with its teachers, and following the state Education Department's policy that allows the civics test to be given at any point in middle school, opted to rearrange the course curriculum.

Thus, students took the exam in eighth grade, after receiving a year of U.S. history, instead of during seventh-grade, as was previously done. Those students entering eighth grade this year will take the exam in 2019, which Byrd says accounts for the discrepancy in the testing population.

Despite the critics' claims, Byrd's explanation is completely plausible. Students would be better prepared to understand civics after a year of that atop a foundation of American history.

On Saturday, The Ledger reported that state Education Secretary Pam Stewart found no wrongdoing in Polk's testing. She also indicated five other counties besides the three named had acted similarly, and suggested other districts do likewise to improve scores. Stewart called Polk's tactic "an educationally sound decision."

It likely won't happen, but we now expect these lawmakers and this group to apologize publicly. Their evidence-free suggestions of cheating was a slap in the face to Byrd, her teachers and, most of all, the students who worked so hard to achieve these scores. The kids deserved better, and the adults who doubted them should be ashamed.

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